By Kevan Barber, Associate Insight & Creative Director
Newcastle United’s dramatically changed over the past two years, and investment from Saudi Arabia’s PIF tends to have a big impact. But beyond the successes of Eddie Howe’s players on the pitch, the commercial side has been equally transformed.
Pre-takeover the club was used commercially by Mike Ashley to sell his giant Sports Direct mugs, the logo was plastered all over the place. With profit and sustainability rules central to the modern game, all that has had to change. More commercial revenue unlocks the ability for PIF to spend its billions, sustainably, supposedly (that’s a whole other blog...).
New commercial partners have arrived, from InPost and Fenwick, to Adidas and Sela, and plenty more popping up on interview media walls. And it’s those latter two that are worth exploring further in just how much of an impact a sponsor can have. If you’re parting ways with £25m a year (reported to be the value of Sela’s shirt sponsorship), you want to see a return. And yes, the logo is there in every game, but with a fanbase that lives and breathes the game, as fans in the North East do, there’s a bigger job to do.
It's something both Sela and Adidas have done magnificently. Sela has embraced the city, not easy (or arguably necessary) for a brand that only operates in Saudi Arabia. The brand is in the business of live entertainment, so they’ve looked to use the sponsorship to entertain fans as inclusively as possible. That culminated in its donating of its shirt sponsorship for one of the best activations any club managed in 2023/24, allowing RNID to take the sponsorship and develop haptic shirts for deaf fans to ‘feel’ the atmosphere. Content from that activation featured lifelong fans benefitting from the new technology.
Adidas has heritage with Newcastle, it manufactured shirts back in the 90s and early 00s, when Keegan’s Entertainers, and then Alan Shearer reigned supreme. Fans celebrated its return, not something that happens over many kit manufacturer announcements. And its return to St James Park has quickly shown why fans were right to get excited. Its home kit announcement was a triumphant return from the brand, but it’s the most recent away kit launch that I’ll focus on.
Fans love easter eggs, football culture is made up of a never-ending cycle of moments that catch the attention of fans. Some of those will be goals or wins, of course, but many live on the periphery. Moments Adidas played back in its latest announcement. There’s likely more than this, but I’ve so far noticed:
Jacob Murphy’s famous wave goodbye to the red-carded Caleta-Car a couple of seasons ago.
Newcastle Brown Ale on the drinks trolley, a flashback to Newcastle’s most iconic shirt sponsor.
Players like Rob Lee, Shay Given and David Ginola making appearances, players key to the previous Adidas era. Not forgetting Nobby Solano and his trumpet.
Eddie Howe reading Bobby Robson’s autobiography, the manager that Geordies hold dearest from the previous era.
Greggs making an appearance, enough said.
Sean Longstaff donning a Joelinton Hawaiian shirt.
In short, there are undoubtedly lifelong fans on that production team.
With clubs hosting burgeoning sponsorship rosters, down to sponsorships like ZC Rubber becoming the official tyre partner of Arsenal, it’s increasingly important for sponsors to boost their sponsorship through earned and owned content.
We (well, I mean I, as the solo-Newcastle fan here) can’t wait to see what’s next.
